Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nihil who wrote (68030)	9/28/1998 7:25:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

nihil - Although I am not a patent attorney I do have an attorney specializing in technology IP on staff, since much of my work involves an analysis of the impact of various potential technology transfers on my clients' business plans. Perhaps my description of the method by which a patent-holder can leverage that IP was too simplistic for a complex subject, but since you seem to understand many of the nuances here, you must also know that there are a number of legal mechanisms in which companies which are competitors can still create licensing structures which grant rights to each other but not to others outside of the agreement. a patent cannot be used to leverage a shared monopoly or cartel Let's paint a picture. Assume that IBM, HP and CPQ have independently developed technology to solve some existing speed problems on PCI. Let's go further and imagine that each of these companies solved the problem in a different way and patented the particular technology they had developed. There are a number of places where each of these independent technologies intersects the need for some changes to the PCI specification, without which none of the three new technologies can become part of a working design. The three companies suspect that each of the others has developed similar technologies. Without disclosing the particulars of their own designs, the companies form a working group to suggest changes to the PCI SIG which would enable all of their technology to be brought to market. The PCI SIG adopts the changes, each of the companies implements a design using the new specification and their own patented technology. Can you point to the cartel here? Can you show me the illegal restrictive licensing practice? There is no patent pool. There is no restricted standard. None the less, each of these three companies can enjoy the benefits of their intellectual property, and others can not. Just an idle speculation of course, one way such an arrangement might have developed. Let me know if there is something wrong with my thinking here...